Category Archives: snellville

Gwinnett County Public Schools Making Changes…

Monday, 07 March 2011 08:30

Written by Lane Bailey

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Image by lane.bailey via Flickr

I ran across a story in the Gwinnett Daily Post mentioning that Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) is getting ready to make a few changes for the 2011-2012 school year. Basically, they need to balance out the Peachtree Ridge and Duluth clusters, open the new Moore Middle School in the Central Gwinnett cluster and shift a couple of Elementary Schools in the Shiloh cluster.

Peachtree Ridge High School and Hull Middle School are both over capacity. The schools that will likely be affected are Peachtree Ridge High, Duluth High, Hull Middle, Duluth Middle, Mason Elementary, Chesney Elementary and BB Harris Elementary. And while GCPS is still working on the boundaries, they expect that less than 1,000 studtents will be affected. Maps should be available later today with the new boundaries.

In 2009, GCPS announced the new Moore Middle School in the Central Gwinnett High School cluster. This adds a second middle school for the cluster. Lawrenceville and Winn Holt elementary schools will feed into the new Moore Middle School, while Cedar Hill, Jenkins, and Simonton elementary schools will continue to feed into Richards Middle. Moore will feed to Central Gwinnett, as will Richards.

There will be a shifting of elementary attendance zones in the Shiloh Cluster as sections of Spain Road, Waterfront Place, Hadley Place and Forest Bend Road will move to Partee ES from Annistown ES. This change also was part of the approved redistricting in December 2009.

Source

Duluth, GA, Market Report, January 2011 (lanebailey.com)
Lawrenceville, GA Market Report, January 2011 (lanebailey.com)

Local? Hyper-Local? National? What IS the Market?

Thursday, 10 February 2011 08:20

Written by Lane Bailey

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old photo of peachtree street, atlanta, GA

Image via Wikipedia

I love watching the news… but when they talk about the real estate market, I cringe. I like to hear the national numbers, but I also know that they are just a framework for a smaller discussion. Yep… a smaller discussion.

It matters what the overall market is doing, but it’s not nearly as important as what is happening in your neighborhood. It matters what is happening in Georgia, and the Atlanta Metro market, but not nearly as much as what is happening in your specific city. Real estate prices and demand react to specific local issues much more than to national trends. In fact, the national trend is just a compilation of local and hyper-local trends. What the national market does is create a headwind or a tailwind. That’s about it.

Here locally, we look at things like…

changing employment statistics
companies relocating into or out of the area
school performance and trends
tax burdens
quality of local governmental services
proximity to recreation and entertainment
ease of movement (commuting, shopping, etc)

As we see these things change, we see the market move in one direction or another. A prime example at the moment is the City of Atlanta schools issue. It is possible that the Atlanta City Schools could lose their accreditation. If that were to happen, it would drive down the price of most of the homes served by those schools. The price would be driven down because there would be a lack of demand on the part of buyers, combined with an increase in supply as sellers seek to move to districts without the same problems.

Gwinnett County has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Georgia, below the national average. But there is also a tremendous overhead of foreclosure action. We also have one of the highest performance school systems in the region… and reasonably low tax rates.

The market in Miami or Las Vegas doesn’t have an effect on what is happening in Georiga, much less what is going on with real estate in Gwinnett County.

Terra Sol by Pulte near Lilburn

Monday, 07 February 2011 08:56

Written by Lane Bailey

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Image via Wikipedia

A few years ago this property was started. One home was built, along with the future clubhouse. The tennis courts were installed and the swimming pool was roughed in. Some of the streets had been laid, and many of the homesites had been prepped.

And that is how the property had sat for the last several years. It just wasn’t worth building out during the worst of the real estate meltdown.

Apparently that has changed now… Pulte has begun construction on the project again. The actually tore down the house that had been built onsite, cleaned up the entrance and begun building in more infrastructure.

It’s really nice to see activity on this project again.

Pulte’s Loss Widens (online.wsj.com)
Lilburn, GA Market Report, December 2010 (lanebailey.com)

Gwinnett Homestretch Program

Thursday, 03 February 2011 08:05

Written by Lane Bailey

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Ken Cook and I are working with Gwinnett Homstretch Down Payment Assistance. As a buyer, you need to have $1000 going into the purchase, but Gwinnett Homestretch may contribute up to $7,500, if you qualify. There are a few things to keep in mind:

It is paid as a 0% loan, which will be forgiven after 5 years of using the property as your principal residence. In effect, that makes it a grant… there are no payments due during the 5 years.
You will be required to complete an 8-hour counseling class from a HUD approved Housing Counseling Agency.
Total household income must not exceed HUD lmits, based on household size. Households range from 1-8 people.
- 2 people – HUD max is $46,000
- 4 people – HUD max is $57,450
- There are different income maximums for other household sizes.
Investors are NOT eligible for this program.
The home MUST pass an inspection by Gwinnett County PRIOR to closing.
Purchase Price may NOT exceed $200,000.

There are other requirements, such as being able to qualify for a mortgage. Contact Ken and I for details.

We’d love to help you buy a home. There are great deals on the market right now, and interest rates are exceptional.

For more info, click here. There are other Down Payment Assistance programs available around the Metro Atlanta area.

Gwinnett County GA Overall Market Report… November, 2010 (lanebailey.com)
Gwinnett County Schools Get $1M Scholarship (gwinnettgarageguy.com)

Zestimate Accuracy in the Atlanta GA Area…

Thursday, 09 December 2010 08:54

Written by Lane Bailey

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: Image via Wikipedia

Ever since they were first introduced, Zillow’s ‘Zestimates’ have created a stir. Some herald them, while other decry them. But, Zillow’s Zestimates are a great tool for homeowners and those looking at buying, whether they are familiar with the area or not.

But the Zestimates DO have a limit. They aren’t terribly accurate. On the good side, though, Zillow is nice enough to tell us how accurate they are for some areas. But, even the accuracy may need to be interpreted.

Let’s see if we can shed some light on Zestimate accuracy for the Atlanta, GA, area. For the sake of this example let’s assume that the Zestimate is exactly $200,000. This is a nice, round number that makes calculations easier.

Median error for the Atlanta area is 15.3%. That means that half of the homes have an error of less than 15.3%, while half have an error higher than 15.3%. In other words, half of the homes that would be valued at $200,000 are worth between $169,400 and $230,600. the other half are worth more than $230,600 or less than $164,900 (should be around 25% too high, 25% too low).
About 58% are actually worth between $160,000 and $240,000.
About 36% are worth between $180,000 and $220,000.
Only 19% are worth between $190,000 and $210,000.

The bottom line is that Zestimates, in the Atlanta area, are pretty rough. There is only a 1 in 5 chance of the home’s value being within 5% of the Zestimate. In other words, it is not a precision tool…

In my experience, most sellers are sure that the Zestimate is too low, and most buyers are convinced it is too high. It is just as likely to be one as the other…

But Zestimates ARE still useful…

Like any tool, they need to be used the right way. My Zillow contacts (and I have met and enjoyed talking with several of the fine folks at Zillow) have stated that the distribution of Zestimate error is just as likely to be high as low. Look at the target in the graphic. None of the shots hit the center of the target… but the AVERAGE of them is quite close. And the same holds true of Zestimates.

Taken as a whole, when looking at larger areas (the larger, the better), they provide a very accurate look at the broader market. But, as we narrow down to more specific areas, they get cloudier and cloudier.

Wayback Wednesday… Median Price Comparison… Ouch! (lanebailey.com)

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Category Archives: snellville

Gwinnett County Public Schools Making Changes…

Local? Hyper-Local? National? What IS the Market?

Terra Sol by Pulte near Lilburn

Gwinnett Homestretch Program

Zestimate Accuracy in the Atlanta GA Area…

But Zestimates ARE still useful…

Browse Listings

Custom Listings

What's YOUR Home Worth?

Follow Me on Pinterest

Category Archives: snellville

Gwinnett County Public Schools Making Changes…

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